<p>I can't seem to get an A in that class because I always miss stupid points here and there for wording. Like -1 for writing "candies for sale" instead of "# of candies for sale". I hope the MIT admission officers know that this class isn't "real" math.</p>
<p>ehh... wait till you meet my stats teacher last year.... he was part of writing the very first AP Stats test, was on the committee for setting up the curriculum and still grades the AP test and AP consultant .... and made us do like case study for stats with real magazine articles regarding econ stuff. We had 3 people with A's both semester and the ones that had Bs aren't like random people.... they were heading towards school like Caltech, Stanford, U Penn, and the lowest was like Berkeley.
the average of one of the tests for us was like... 60% (most people took calc bc and got 5's on those already)</p>
<p>Stats is actually pretty interesting. it gives you a whole other perspective on numbers. Just learn the wordings; memorize it from the book if you have to XP
Have fun and Good luck!</p>
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I hope the MIT admission officers know that this class isn't "real" math.
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<p>You are full of crap if you don't think that prob/stats is real math. However, you're not going to be rejected for one B either.</p>
<p>I'd have to agree that certain parts of AP Stats I woudlnt consider math per se. For example, like the stuff on designing experiements and samples; if anything, that seems more of a science than a math. On the other hand, there's no way you could possibly argue that probablility theory is not actual math.</p>
<p>Besides the designging thigns though, you can't really argue that anything else isn't math. Although, I'd probably say that 90% of it is applied math as opposed to pure math, but its math nonetheless.</p>
<p>I'd dare say that stats is far more useful than most calculus you'll ever learn, esp. if you want to do research...</p>
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For example, like the stuff on designing experiements and samples; if anything, that seems more of a science than a math.
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<p>At MIT, math is in the School of Science. :D</p>
<p>I will agree, though, that experimental design, while incredibly useful and underrated and an important skill at MIT, is not math.</p>
<p>"I will agree, though, that experimental design, while incredibly useful and underrated and an important skill at MIT, is not math."</p>
<p>That's because statistics (statistical science) is, by definition, a science. To MIT, statistics is something taken by applied mathematicians along with other natural sciences and whatnot for "breadth in their studies." It is most definitely not pure math, except for the theoretical side of it, also known as mathematical statistics, which is...MATH, obviously. To the person I quoted: don't worry, I'm agreeing with you.</p>
<p>"You are full of crap if you don't think that prob/stats is real math. However, you're not going to be rejected for one B either."</p>
<p>The subject is definitely math. But I said "this class" and was not referring to the subject in general. Maybe some other schools are better but here, the teacher is so focused on writing every sentence correctly (at least according to her) that it really loses the mathematical aspect. I think you'd agree with me if you attended my high school. And yes, the probability we learn in stats is mathematical, but it's not very in depth.</p>
<p>I agree that high level statistics is useful in research (I have used statistics to analyze programs that I've written for my math research paper, although multivariable calculus is no less important in my analytical calculations) but the important concepts in AP Stats (such as re-expressing data) can be taught in a way more mathematical manner without going through all the wording issues.</p>
<p>Here's a great article on the distinction between pure mathematics and statistics, and why many college math teachers don't do very well in teaching statistics. </p>
<p><a href="http://statland.org/MAAFIXED.PDF%5B/url%5D">http://statland.org/MAAFIXED.PDF</a></p>
<p>Eh, I use to get really annoyed in stat's the same way (except I took it in 9th so I was exceptionally naive and did all my homework like my teacher wanted like a goody-goody [that quickly changed as I got older]). </p>
<p>Being precise in what you want to say is very important though. Especially when you want to communicate very complicated high level stuff to other people, you have to know how to exactly phrase something so they pretty much get exactly what you are trying to say. </p>
<p>But yeah, either spend extra time to get the A, or decide it isn't worth it and take the B, but there's no middle ground!</p>
<p>Heh. My AP Stats class this year is a cakewalk. All depends on the teacher, I guess. Of course, my teacher touts "Guess and Check!" as the only viable way to solve anything with a variable. And when he makes a mistake in his teaching us (Quite often), he tries to brush it under the rug after saying, "Oh, I taught you wrong," and doesn't fully teach us the correct way.</p>
<p>I've long since learned that it's best to ignore the man. I'll just keep passing those tests instead.</p>
<p>I dropped my AP Statistics class because our teacher was not compatible with my learning style. Her notes were ridiculously long but didn't say much of anything, and she forced us to use the Cornell notetaking system... which is all fine and dandy for literature, but in a math class it gets a little harder.</p>
<p>Instead, I transferred into AP Computer Science A =D</p>
<p>My son just took regular high school stat and after reading this, I'm really glad he did not take AP. The only way you can take AP at his school is online with a teacher halfway across the country, so I think this would have been a nightmare. Good luck to those in it.</p>